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What are the advantages of building wealth via investing/trading compared to traditional entrepreneurship? Has anyone here known anyone who got wealthy via investing/trading? If so, what methods did they use or how did they do it?
Folks have gotten to be "wealthy" all the time using traditional investing in sectors and the broader market with a timeline in the decades ...
Though you have to redefine "wealth." In this case, it is being able to maintain your standard of living into retirement. And how'd they do it? By diversifying among sectors, and investment vehicles (stocks, bonds, cash, commodities, real estate, etc). Then basically throwing in a bit of money at a time over decades, rebalancing according to risk profiles, then watching it grow.
It's not sexy. It's not fast. It's not satisfying to today's hyperactive get-rich-quick mentality. Don't like it? Tough, deal with it.
Why? Because a staggering % of all small businesses fail in their first year, and fewer have enough to prosper into what I think you mean "wealth". Few are able to say they're millionaires within a span of 10 years. Those that do typically have all their assets tied up into the business and can't like, withdraw 100's of G's at a time. It doesn't work like that.
I know two people who got wealthy in both methods. One is a super-genius when it comes to computer network security and will retire in his early 40s with a bank account with 9 figures. The other went to Alaska to build electricity infrastructure.
Both are millionaires, but the latter can't do anything about it because 99.9% of all that wealth is tied up in his business.
The former studied his butt off as a kid, and again in college, and again as an adult as most people were too busy playing sports / playing video games, getting drunk, and being lazy (in no particular order).
Another friend of mine got rich playing the market. You wanna know where he is now? I'll let you know when the police find him or he turns up; he's missing. He was stupid and made risky bets, and when the housing market came crashing in, he disappeared. He either ran away to another country with whatever money he had left or back to his parent's place to start over. I daren't think he's a goner, but he could be.
So get through your head there's a difference between the three:
Entrepreneurship is frought with danger and most likely you will fail unless you are smart and find a niche or service that is missing and can compete with the big boys who WILL undercut you on price
Traditional investing isn't sexy, pretty, fast, or glamorous, but gets the job done (and if you work in a brainiac field, and max out your 401k and Roth and other investments every year, you can retire by your 40s)
Trading in the market is no better than going to Vegas and betting it all on black or red
But one can't expect 10% since the markets are unpredictable. Now Barry wants the investor to pay more taxes too. What's a mother to do?
10% is a conservative return. Nothing is guaranteed in life. However, I see your question was more about blasting Obama. In this example, a person would need to invest $2.5 million just to reach the $250k threshold. Keep your tin foil hat on and avoid the markets. You can be miserable, while I make $$$.
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